A Photo Story

A Long Day’s End

Just outside of the mountain village of Nalma, Nepal, a group of young boys, back home on holiday from their schools in bigger cities, spent most of their days in the village toiling in a quarry and carrying rocks back to their village for construction. I took this picture as one of those workers carried his final load of rocks to the village, on April 25, 2015, to end of his final day of work.

At first glance the date may not seem of any significance, but April 25 is a day of tragedy in Nepal. Early that day, a massive earthquake rocked Nepal as these boys worked in the quarry. Though Nalma did not suffer any casualties, I watched walls of houses throughout the villages. When the earthquake was finished, this boy and his friends rushed back into the village to check on their family homes. After about an hour, even though aftershocks were still hitting the village, they returned to the quarry and went straight back to work.

I visited them around sundown as they returned to the village, filthy and tired after such a long day, one that would turn out to be tragic for so many in this country. But these boys were in good spirits, laughing and singing as they carried stones home which would now be used to repair their damaged village.